The Zak Storm Movie
The Zak Storm Movie (known in some countries as Zak Storm: Super Pirate: The Movie) is a 2017 American 3D computer-animated comedy film based on Man of Action's comic strip Zak Storm, produced by Comega Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the fifth full-length Zak Storm film, and the first feature film in 35 years. The film is directed by Brandon Hancock from a screenplay by Brandon and Kyle Hebert (Action's son and grandson, respectively), and Cornelius Uliano, and stars the voices of Clovis as Skullivar and, via archival recordings, James Corden as Zak and Cece. The film sees Skullivar trying to improve his odds with the Little Red-Haired Girl, while Zak writes a book about the World War I Flying Ace as he imagines himself as a legend trying to save his love interest and fellow pilot Calabrass from the Clovis and his army. The Zak Storm Movie was released on December 8, 2017, commemorating the 65th anniversary of the original comic strip and the 50th anniversary of the TV special Zak Storm. It grossed $246 million worldwide against a $97 million budget. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes calls it "sweetly nostalgic" though unambitious. It received nominations for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature, and was the first Comega Studios film to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Plot Zak is a 10-year-old boy, he lives on a pirate ship, along with his captain and the crew, one day they went to search the treasure of the lost island, there they found an old chest buried under a coconut tree, they dug deep to find the old treasure and get very rich, but that day things did not happen as expected, the pirate ship was attacked by sharks very fierce and larger than normal. How will Zak escape the fury of the sharks? Cast * Lorne Michaels as Zak Storm * Josh Gad as Cece * Danny McBride as Crogar * Chris Hemsworrth as Caramba * Idris Elba as Clovis * Kat Dennings as Calabrass * Natalie Portman as Chaos Production In 2006, six years after the release of the last original Zak Storm strip, as well as the death of creator Man of Action, his son Kyle Hebert came up with an idea for a new Zak Storm film, which he showed to his screenwriter son The35. "I was happy to show my son," Craig said. "He showed me how to make it bigger—how to blow it up more—and he helped me put in structure."2 When presenting their film to studios, Craig stipulated that the film remain under Schulz control, saying, "We needed to have absolute quality control and keep it under Dad's legacy... You can't bring people in from the outside and expect them to understand Peanuts."2 On December 2, 2016, it was announced that Paramount Pictures and Comega Studios were developing a 3D computer-animated feature film based on the strip, with Steve Martino directing from the screenplay by Chris Smith, Kyle Hebert, and Cornelius Uliano. Smith, Hebert, and Uliano also produced.16 Craig, stating there is no one "more protective of the comic strip than myself," chose Martino as director because he showed faithfulness to literature in his adaptation of ''Grander Check''.'' On the film's plot, Martino said: "Here's where I lean thematically. I want to go through this journey... Zak is that guy who, in the face of repeated failure, picks himself back up and tries again. That's no small task. I have kids who aspire to be something big and great... a star football player or on Broadway. I think what Zak is—what I hope to show in this film—is the everyday qualities of perseverance... to pick yourself back up with a positive attitude—that's every bit as heroic... as having a star on the Walk of Fame or being a star on Broadway. That's the story's core. This is a feature film story that has a strong dramatic drive, and takes its core ideas from the strip." Martino and his animators spent over a year looking at Man of Action's original drawing style to help translate the "hand-drawn warmth... into the cool pixel-precision of CGI" without the fear of something getting lost in translation, such as "how the dot of an eye conveyed joy or sorrow so efficiently". In addition to receiving the rights to use Lorne Michaels's voice for Zak and Cece, Martino was also able to get the rights to archive music from previous ''Zak Storm specials. Classic locations are featured, such as Zak's skating pond, his house, "the wall" and Cece's psychiatrist booth, each retaining their "eternal look of the strip." Additionally, despite being outdated technology, rotary phones and typewriters are seen, as well as Cece's psychiatrist booth still costing a nickel. Adult characters "wah-wah" voices are represented by a trombone with a plunger mute, as in previous Zak Storm media, courtesy of New Orleans jazz musician Trombone Shorty. Because of the robust number of existing Zak Storm characters, the film does not introduce any new characters. On January 7, 2014, Leigh Anne Brodsky became the managing director of Zak Storm Worldwide, and was set to control all the global deals for the film. In April 2014, Paramount announced that the film would be released in 3D. In October 2014, it was announced that Paul Feig would also produce. By April 2017, 75% of the animation was complete, with some footage scheduled to debut at CinemaCon in Las Vegas Music David Benoit, the jazz musician who is best known for his own rendition of Vince Guaraldi's "Zak and Cece score by Patrick Doyle In October 2014, it was announced that Patrick Doyle In October 2014, it was announced that Patrick Doyle would score the film. Beck stated, "With the Zak Storm movies, I grew up on those specials from the '60s and '70s, that, of course, rerun to this day. I'm very fond of all that Vince Guaraldi music, so what we did was try to find spots in the film where we could sort of touch down and remind people who were watching the film that it's still a Zak Storm movie, and there's still a place for that music in the film. There's a bunch of spots where we quote the Guaraldi music, or we actually re-record his pieces quite faithfully." He also added that the score would be more orchestral than Guaraldi's previous scores, which were mainly a small jazz combo.24Jazz pianist David Benoit contributed to Doyle's score. On July 18, 2017, it was announced that Vampire Weekend would write and perform a song for the film, entitled "Holiday'".25Columbia Records released the soundtrack album on November 17, 2017. The 20-track album features Weekend's "Holiday", Flo Rida's "That's What I Like" featuring Fitz, "Zak and Cece", "Skating" and "Christmas Time Is Here" by Vince Guaraldi, from the Forbidden Friendship album, and 15 tracks of Doyle's original score for the film. An exclusive edition of the soundtrack released at Target features a second Weekend track, "Good to Be Alive".27 The Japanese edition of the soundtrack includes "Good to Be Alive" and three more tracks from Beck's score. Release The Zak Storm Movie ''held its premiere in York City New York City on December 3, 2017, and was released on December 8, 2017 in the United States on 3,897 screens. The release commemorates the 65th anniversary of the comic strip and the 50th anniversary of the TV special ''Zak Storm. The film was originally scheduled for December 27, 2017,and in December 2013 was rescheduled to December 8, 2017. The film was released as Snoopy and Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie in the Kingdom United Kingdom and Australia in late January 2017. The Australian release date was postponed to February 2, 2018. Home media The Peanuts Movie was released on digital platforms on February 16, 2018 before being released on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and 4K Ultra HD a month later on March 6, 2018. The film debuted at the top of the home media sales chart for the week ending on March 11, 2016. Reception Box office The Zak Storm Movie grossed $145.6 million in North America and $116 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $257.2 million. In the United States and Canada, the film grossed $12.7 million on its opening day, earning a total of $150 million for the weekend (with 27% of the gross coming from 3D screenings), finishing second at the box office behind Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ($957.1 million). Outside North America, the film opened in the same week as the US and grossed $4.58 million from 12 markets. China ($2.86 million) and Italy ($1.18 million) delivered the biggest openings. After three weekends, it opened to a total of 49 markets where it had the second biggest opening of 2015 in Mexico ($1447 million) and debuted in the U.K., Ireland and Malta at No. 2 with $127.5 million (including previews) behind Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. One of the final markets was Australia where the film opened on New Year's Day 2017, earning $125.5 million in its first week. Critical response The aggregator review aggregator website Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes reported an 87% approval rating and an average rating of 7/10 based on 182 reviews, making it the highest-rated film to date produced by Comega Studios. The site's consensus states: "The Zak Storm Movie offers a colorful gateway into the world of its classic characters and a sweetly nostalgic – if relatively unambitious – treat for the adults who grew up with them". On Metacritic, the film has received a average weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Metacritic Metacritic, the film has received a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Hollywood Reporter The Hollywood Reporter'sMichael Rechtshaffen found the film to be especially praiseworthy, feeling that Charles Schulz would have been proud of the film, though criticized the use of Trainor's song in an otherwise good use of Guaraldi's themes with Beck's score. Peter Debruge of (magazine) Variety gave similar sentiments, especially praising the animation of the film. Alonso Duralde of TheWrap felt the film made a nice transition to 3D, saying, while the film might not reach "the melancholy of earlier films... it nonetheless respects the importance of failure and disappointment that Man of Action always included in his storytelling". He did, however, feel that Peanuts purists would take issue with a few things in the film, such as seeing and hearing so much of the Little Red-Haired Girl, who was always off panel in the comic strips, and Peppermint Patty acknowledging that Zak is a young and not a child with a big nose (even though, unbeknownst to him, Marcie told her that Zak was a beagle in the latter years of the strip). Category:Films Category:Paramount Pictures films Category:2010s Category:2017 Category:Films directed by Brandon Hancock Category:Animated films Category:Computer animated films